The Tories need to get real on the issue of social mobility

I was surprised to read George Osborne's article on my social mobility pamphlet (Sincerest flattery, January 10). Surprised, because it is the first that the Tories have said on this issue for quite some time. Back in December 2006, David Davis announced that he would make 2007 "the year in which the Conservative party gets to grips with social mobility". Davis said he was "setting up a taskforce ... to investigate in more detail why social mobility is declining and what can be done to reverse the decline".

While researching my pamphlet, published last week with Progress and the union Community, it was impossible to find any sign of the work of such a taskforce, or any evidence that Davis's proclamation was more than another opportunistic comment piece in the press. Osborne has now chosen to follow this up with ... another opportunistic comment piece.

Perhaps my pamphlet reminded the Tories that they were supposed to care about social mobility. Certainly, when it comes to helping people to move on and do as well as they can in life, the Tories have today been caught out as having no coherent ideas.

Osborne's article barely mentions social mobility itself, despite being a supposed response to my pamphlet. The core of my publication is that Labour has halted the declining mobility that Britain endured in the 80s and 90s under the last Conservative government. From his complete omission of the mobility issue, I take Osborne's article as tacit acceptance of this fact.

Of course, Cameron's Conservatives cannot mention poverty without reference to Iain Duncan Smith's Breakdown Britain report. I don't dispute that this contained some interesting ideas - however, it also exposed a much wider problem at the heart of the Tory frontbench. IDS - a former Tory leader, let's not forget - speaks frequently about his first visit to a poor area of Glasgow and the effect that this had in stirring his interested in social justice issues. But the visit took place in 2002, and IDS has been a Tory MP since 1992. What was he doing for the previous 10 years?

Therein lies a key difference between Labour and the Tories - Labour activists are rooted in their communities and join the party because they want to fight against poverty and for social justice and equality. Some Tories, meanwhile, only discover the meaning of poverty after a decade in parliament.

What is most dishonest about Osborne's article is the way he attempts to pretend that child poverty has increased in recent years. When Labour came to power in 1997, the UK had the worst rates of child poverty in Europe. Today 600,000 fewer children are living in relative poverty. Our reforms to the tax-and-benefit system mean that the poorest families will be an average of £4,000 better off by April 2009, and even Osborne recognises that Labour has redistributed wealth.

Of course there is much more to do, but the Tories need to get real. Last year they forgot about social mobility. In the 80s and 90s they forgot about the communities in which Labour politics are rooted. Until they start taking these issues seriously, no one is going to be fooled by opportunistic comment pieces.